{"id":15727,"date":"2023-08-17T20:26:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T19:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/?p=15727"},"modified":"2023-08-17T12:39:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T11:39:48","slug":"reading-for-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/reading-for-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading for inspiration and pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">We promote using library resources for enjoyment, relaxation and escapism, to increase understanding of self and social identities, and to develop empathy and knowledge of other cultures. <\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/files\/2020\/04\/16317823991_a628f38955_e-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15728\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/files\/2020\/04\/16317823991_a628f38955_e-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/files\/2020\/04\/16317823991_a628f38955_e-1.jpg 499w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/files\/2020\/04\/16317823991_a628f38955_e-1-300x233.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/a><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s more to the library than text books and study resources. Reading for pleasure can benefit and enrich you beyond your academic pursuits.<\/p>\n<p>Overwhelmed with core and recommended texts? Fancy something a little lighter? Following the interest and appetite for our &#8220;Blind date with a book&#8221; initiative that we ran back in February, we want to continue to promote the value and benefits of reading for its own sake, helping to improve <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/readingagency.org.uk\/about\/impact\/002-reading-facts-1\/\">wellbeing<\/a><\/strong> and lifelong learning.<\/p>\n<p>Many of our print general interest titles (fiction and non-fiction), are inaccessible currently, but why not take advantage of some of the following online sources for titles and collections:<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Must read classics<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/\">Project Gutenberg<\/a> is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world&#8217;s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.read.gov\/adults\/\">Classic books online from Library of Congress<\/a> This resource provides access to many older titles electronically to enjoy. It also has a great list of author webcasts to listen to, including authors like Chinua Achebe and Isabel Allende.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Sci-fi, fantasy and horror<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/digitalfictionpub.com\/\">Digital fiction pub<\/a> great if fantasy and sci-fi are more you&#8217;re thing, supporting speculative works and up and coming authors. You may discover the next Aldous Huxley or Neil Gaiman.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Graphic novels<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/readgraphicnovels.blogspot.com\/\">Read graphic novels online<\/a> a blogpost site dedicated to listing access to some fantastic visual delights. Personal favourites are Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you are a member of your local public library then don&#8217;t forget to check out their ebook collections that will be freely available.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4><strong>And more&#8230;<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manybooks.net\/\">Manybooks<\/a> is a free digital library with extensive titles including many self published authors to explore.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stories.audible.com\/discovery\/enterprise-discovery-21122353011?ref=adbl_ent_anon_ds_ds_dccs_sbtp-0-5\">Audible<\/a> have currently opened up 100&#8217;s of audio book titles for free during school closures, you can also sign up for a 30 day free trial to open up even more choices.<\/p>\n<p>BFI film player have a fantastic selection of free clips and footage for you to enjoy &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/player.bfi.org.uk\/free\/collections\">check out the selections<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you are into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jigsawplanet.com\/\">jigsaw puzzles<\/a> then there are loads to choose from here<\/p>\n<h4><strong>If you need more convincing on the benefits of reading for pleasure and personal wellbeing then take a look at these links:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/readingagency.org.uk\/resources\/3132\/\">A society of readers report\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b006qp6p\">Open Book radio 4<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/news\/2019\/october\/anything-but-silent\">Anything but silent &#8211; British Library podcast series<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/oursharedshelf\/?hl=en\">Our shared shelf &#8211; intersectional feminist digital bookclub<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Share your suggestions with us too by using the comments field at the end of this post &#8211; we would love to hear what types of titles you would like to access! <strong>#KentTogetherAtHome\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We promote using library resources for enjoyment, relaxation and escapism, to increase understanding of self and social identities, and to develop empathy and knowledge of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/reading-for-pleasure\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10269,127013],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15727"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15957,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions\/15957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/isnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}